Maiduguri and Kano — *Bauchi suspends exercise

The government of Kano State announced that the state would not take part in the resumed immunisation programme and many residents of Borno and Bauchi states have said they will not allow their children to be immunised as encouraged by the federal government following the controversy that surrounds the issue.

In Kano, a driver, Malam Abubakar Abdullahi, who spoke with Daily Trust, said he would not allow his children or relatives to be immunised. "This is because of the experience I went through. You see, my four year old daughter Rufaida was overdosed during one of these polio exercises which led to some complications," he said.

Malam Abubakar added that to put all the controversy that surrounds the safety of the vaccine aside, the ad hoc staff employed to carry out the immunisation were not properly trained which he said resulted to the overdose of the vaccine in children which could lead to complications.

He expressed support for the decision by the Kano State government to suspend the whole exercise in the state for the interest of its citizenry.

On his part, Malam Mag-aji Iliya Yanmedi of Shagari quarters, also said that even if government resolved the controversy, the ad hoc staff who were not experts in the administration of the vaccines need to be trained and reorganised and that most of the ad hoc staff were secondary school leavers who were more interested in the monetary aspect of the immunisation rather than the correct application of the vaccines.

He said the federal government should not force the vaccines on the children of unwilling parents. "We have health problems that are far worse than polio disease, therefore let the federal government and the international donors who think they love our children more than us address those health problems if it is true they have the interest of our children at heart with no ulterior motive."

He pointed out that most general hospitals in the country were in bad shape and without modern and standard equipment as well as lack drugs and other necessities to function effectively which he said, puts a question mark on the persistence in the federal government and the donor agencies on the issue of polio immunisation.

However, Malam Ya'u Zabairu said he would allow his children to be immunised if the government insists that it should be done, saying that he left everything to God.

Reports said that the Bauchi State had shifted the resumed programme to February 25, so that the state government could acquaint itself with the result of the federal government's investigation team that left the country for Indonesia and India.

A BBC Hausa service report monitored in Abuja quoted the state government as attributing the suspension to the apprehension gene-rated by the controversy surrounding the safety of the polio vaccine.

Already, BBC programme reported that anti-polio immunisation leaflets were distributed in Missau local government of Bauchi State, urging people to reject the exercise, but was said to have gone smoothly in other parts of the country, as reports from our correspondents said the programme took off in Taraba, Adamawa, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Plateau, Kogi and Niger States without hitches.

But the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) has been largely rejected in Maiduguri metropolitan and Jere local government areas of Borno State as parents cite fears of possible harmful effects in the vaccine.

Daily Trust checks in Maiduguri yesterday showed that many of the immunisation officers were refused entry into households to immunise children with mothers saying that their husbands had not granted them permission to let the children immunised.

Parents who spoke with our correspondent said that the ongoing controversy about the safety of the vaccines fuelled their fears, maintaining that unless the controversy was resolved, they were unlikely to accept the vaccine.

The coordinator of the immunisation programme in Maiduguri metropolitan, Bukar Mustapha, said that a BBC Hausa service interview yesterday morning with the Kano State governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, where he said that the exercise would not hold in Kano might have affected the success of the exercise in Borno.

The social mobilisation consultant of the World Health Organisation (WHO), in Borno State, Malam Abdullahi Mijinyawa, also explained to Daily Trust, that the rejection of the immunisation in Maiduguri might be due to the effect of the Kano State governor's interview with the BBC.

"Perhaps the rejection is due to a particular news inter-view broadcast on BBC Hausa service with the governor of Kano State where he said that he was not going to allow the exercise to go ahead in Kano due to certain reasons," Mijinyawa said.

The WHO consultant said that people were scep-tical to allowing their children be immunised basically because of the controversies that emerged but assured that the OPV was safe "and does not contain any harmful agents."

The immunisation exercise was flagged off in Maiduguri by the wife of Governor Sheriff, Hajiya Fatima Sheriff, with children immunised on the first day of the programme.

Health Commissioner, Alhaji Kaka Malam Yale, told Daily Trust that the poor outing might be due to the fact that the programme was only just beginning and hoped that the participation would improve as it continues in the subsequent days.

The federal government and the Jama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI) joint panel which had gone for a combined verification of the vaccine in four countries has arrived in Nigeria and is expected to release the results today because it could not get them ready for the scheduled release yesterday.

The results are expected to put paid to controversies surrounding the safety of the vaccine.